top of page
2022 Tournament Results
Thanks
It was great having everyone back together after our three year (COVID) hiatus. It was so great to see everyone again, and we can't thank you enough for making this another incredible success. Thanks to all of our great players and donors, we once again raised over $3300 for the National MS Society. The event was lots of fun, and we are incredibly grateful for our fantastic support community.
A quick thank you to everyone who helped make this year's tournament a success. Thank you to our volunteer dealers, David, Andi, Barry, and Laurie. Thank you to our food runner, Erin. And thank you to our great food sponsor:
I really enjoy putting this event together every year, mostly due to all of you, who help make this so easy and so rewarding for our charity. I never even really opened up registration for this tournament as, the seats all filled quickly when announced to our returning players. We did end up squeezing in a few first timers thanks to a few cancellations, but in general, we had the usual crew. A special thanks to all who came from near and far to join the festivities. Thank you also to our great volunteer dealers Andi, David, Barry, and Laurie!
Didn't make it to the tournament this spring, but still want to help out? Please use the Donation LInk below:
Highlights
Tournament Highlights and Results
On to the tournament summary and highlights. There were a few highlights to the early play. (Not my fault, but I may have been involved in a 3-way all-in on the first hand - and although, I may have had the worst hand to start - I may have tripled up.) As one of our old shirts says, "Better Lucky than Good". Jeff and Raj had a back and forth battle for most rebuys, and ended up tieing each other with 5 by the end of the first three rounds (congrats ;-) There were quite a number of rebuys, but I'm pretty sure that Table 2 led the way (I am only partially responsible for that).
Which table is having the most fun? Let's see.... (thanks Jaime for taking pictures)
Thanks again to Papa Johns for supplying pizza this year, and thanks to Laurie and Erin for getting the rest of the food ready for the crew. After the relaxing break, it was time for the elimination period of the tournament. Side story - Sandy arrived a bit early this year, and viewing the trophies said something to the extent that she really wanted to take on home, and would be OK even if it was the fish trophy. Well, she must have known something as she got it all in within about 10 minutes, and got to take home the first trophy of the day.
First Out
Final Table
Final Table and Results
It seems that this tournament gets longer and longer every year. Maybe this year, people really wanted to stick around (or maybe during the layoff, we all got better), but it was slow going to get to the final table. We actually got down to two tables within about an hour, but then didn't have our final 9 until about two hour later - as we had two tables of five for at least a full round. Shawn finally, said enough was enough and we had our final table.
The chips were actually pretty evenly distributed to a few big stacks and then a few short stacks as well. There were only three returning champs at the table and six players hoping to enter the realm of the MS Poker Champions (including me). The action was slow but steady initially, as we lost players about once every 5-10 minutes until we were down to the last five. At that point, the game tightened up again as no one wanted to bubble out of the tournament that close to the prizes.
John and Mary had their chances and made some great moves, but eventually they were ousted by some unfriendly cards, leaving Russell, Gil, and me to fight for the prize money and trophy. Entering the final three, Gil was clearly in the chip lead with me in second and Russell in third, but I was definitely afraid of Russell and his good plays. It was also getting very late, as we had been playing for about 8 hours already.
Final 3
Ultimately, Russell continued his streak of bad cards and got caught by Gil, leaving the two kayakers to fight for the trophy. We ended up playing heads up for over an hour as Gil kept the chip lead for te majority of the match, though at one point I fought back with a big hand to briefly take the chip lead. Unfortunately, it was short lived as my top pair with up/down straight draw was no match for Gil's flopped straight - and I was on life support, just looking for a chance to claw my way back up into contention, but it (once again) wouldn't be my day. Congratulations to our 2022 top finishers and new Champion!
3rd Place Russell Shiflett
2nd Place Adam Hartman
Congratulations to the 2022 MS Poker Champion: Gil Rocha
Champion
Did you miss the 2022 MS Poker Tournament, but still want to get in on the action? Want to help fight MS, but need to spend some quality time with the family? Well, try our not-so-new family friendly fundraiser: The MS Ice-Cream-A-Thon! We host this event at the end of every summer - and you can register and get more information on our website: www.IceCreamAThon.com
Hall of Champions
bottom of page